Chapter 117 - Dark Clouds (1)

Had the rank-five monster's aura of fear made that much of an impression?

Dwalki stammered as he backed away.

"W-why is there a rank-five monster in Sky Tower...?"

I could understand how he felt. It was common knowledge that nothing higher than rank six appeared in Sky Tower.

But speaking strictly as a veteran player...

'Rank fives do show up.'

Rank-five monsters appeared in Sky Tower too, though the odds were absolutely abysmal. Had it happened to me about seven times? That sounded about right, adding up all my playtime over ten years.

Still...

'I really didn't expect to run into one on the twelfth floor.'

Sky Tower's difficulty stopped increasing at the hundredth floor. And every rank-five monster I'd encountered had appeared while I was grinding above that point.

But here one was on the twelfth floor?

'The goddamn Hans effect.'

As much as I wanted to sigh, I shouted with all my might instead.

"Everyone, snap out of it!!"

Whether it was Hans, my rotten luck, or something else, this wasn't the time to calculate the odds and dwell on how unfortunate I was. I could think about the cause later.

When shit hit the fan, action came first.

So—

"VEHELLLAAAAAA!!"

I activated [Wild Outburst] and charged. If we just stood there, someone would have to die before the others came to their senses.

WHOOSH!

As I rushed in, radiating my increased Threat stat, the troll immediately swung a fist at me.

It was surprising that such a massive body could move so fast, but what really amazed me was its strength.

BOOM!

Fuck, I nearly dropped my shield.

For the first time in a long while, I was overpowered and shoved backward.

"I-I'll help!"

The dwarf joined me and took the troll's next blow.

「Hikurod Murad has cast [Weight Balance].」

Thanks to the Ayantro's skill, he wasn't pushed back and even received a bonus to impact absorption, but...

CRUNCH!

His buckler turned into scrap metal.

「Hikurod Murad has cast [Emergency Restoration].」

He'd taken just one hit, and already he had to use his equipment-repair skill.

S-see? I told you to get a new shield.

[GRAAAAGH!!]

I blocked another swinging fist and smashed my mace into its shoulder.

THWACK!

A satisfying, solid impact traveled up my arm, but that was all. Far from breaking a bone, the troll bastard didn't even flinch as it threw another punch.

'Tsk. Am I not even doing any damage?'

I clicked my tongue and stepped back, dodging its fist. Wounding a troll wouldn't mean much in the first place, and I judged it foolish to pit my strength against a monster like this.

WHOOSH!

As the troll's fist swept through empty air, our damage dealers finally seemed to recover and began providing support.

Rotmiller's crossbow fired first.

WHIZZ! TINK!

The bolt shot forth with gusto, only to bounce off as though it had struck a stone wall. So an ordinary bolt couldn't even pierce a troll's hide.

Tsk. It would've been different with Mister Bear.

SLASH!

Misha's sword strikes, which I'd been counting on, were underwhelming too. They cut through the troll's thick hide, but not deeply.

'Still, I guess it's a good thing she's a freezing swordswoman.'

I consoled myself at the sight of frost coating the wound. Its resistances were so high, as befitted a rank-five monster, that inflicting Frozen was out of the question, but this was better than nothing.

It would inhibit its regeneration a little.

"I-it's ready!"

Dwalki finished his incantation and launched his signature enhanced Ice Spear. He aimed at the head, a weak point for just about any monster.

But...

CRUNCH!

With monstrous Physical stats and high Mana Resistance to boot, the troll bastard simply smashed the Ice Spear with its bare fist.

Had the sight broken Dwalki's resolve?

[GRAAAAGH!!]

Dwalki stammered, trembling with fear.

"W-we must run. A troll isn't a monster you can fight without any preparation like—"

Right, it wasn't an easy monster. Normally, people prepared extensively before hunting one.

But where exactly were we supposed to run?

"Shut up and focus on the fight!!"

"U-understood!"

Whew. Why did he only listen when I shouted at him?

Anyway, now that he was sorted out...

BOOM!

I focused more intently on holding the troll back and assessed the situation.

Against a rank-five monster, you needed a minimum level of stats just to put up a fight. Well, rank-six monsters had that tendency too, but rank five was on an entirely different level.

'This is going to be a pain.'

Take the Vampire we'd encountered in Blood-Tinted Castle. Back then, we'd had Raven, a grade-six mage. A mage's grade counted as one and a half higher, meaning we'd effectively had a damage dealer above rank five on our team.

We'd also had the overpowered item called Goddess' Tears, a sacred relic potent enough to one-shot a Death Knight. On top of that, we'd bombarded it with attack spells of the solar element, its direct counter.

And what had happened?

'... Even then, it didn't die in one hit.'

That was how formidable a rank-five monster was. We'd held out on potions, then poured everything into a single blow, and the bastard had still survived.

And that was a monster with high regeneration but relatively low defense.

What about this troll bastard, then?

It possessed both top-tier regeneration and defense. Put simply, it was the same type as the deathfiend, which had served as quite the barrier to entry.

The kind of monster you had absolutely no chance of beating with a lucky punch if your stats weren't up to par.

'Still... are we just barely above the cutoff?'

I assessed our combat strength dispassionately. Setting aside the dwarf and myself, the tanks, I considered only our damage dealers. Could those two deal enough damage to bring down a rank-five monster?

The answer was, technically, yes.

If Dwalki devoted all his mana to curses, and we two tanks held out for as long as it took, Misha, who'd recently grown much stronger, could whittle it down.

'The problem is, it wouldn't be remotely surprising if someone died in the process.'

Given a troll's traits, if we couldn't overwhelm it with stats, a prolonged fight was inevitable. And the longer a fight dragged on, the more likely something was to go wrong.

"Misha! Watch out!!"

I gritted my teeth as I threw myself in the way of a fist aimed at her.

"Ah, th-thanks, nyah!"

This was clearly going to be a hard fight. The sort where it wouldn't be strange for someone to die. If Misha or Dwalki fell, it would be game over.

But...

"VEHELLLAAAAAA!!"

We had no choice but to try.

Five minutes. Ten. Fifteen.

The fight continued as sweat poured down our bodies. Every minute, every second, each of us focused on our role and gave everything we had toward a single goal.

BOOM!

The dwarf and I took turns blocking its attacks, conserving as much Stamina as possible.

「Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the grade-eight curse spell [Worsening].」

「Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the grade-nine curse spell [Dulling].」

「Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the grade-seven curse spell [Softening].」

Rather than casting attack spells, Dwalki devoted himself to support, showering it with curses.

The troll's regeneration decreased, its movements slowed, and even its Physical Resistance dropped a little.

SLASH!

Misha worked tirelessly at cutting it, targeting a single spot as I'd ordered.

SLASH!

After repeated strikes to the same place, its right arm was half-severed and beginning to dangle.

[GRAAAGH!!]

Rotmiller wasn't sitting idle either. The troll thrashed around too much for him to put a bolt through its eye as I'd asked, but those attempts alone helped us tanks.

They divided its attention.

"Dwalki, into my arms!"

It was also Rotmiller's job to carry Dwalki away whenever the troll lost aggro on us.

Whew. This felt like walking on thin ice.

BOOM!

Using [Wild Outburst], which had just come off cooldown, I brought the troll back where it belonged and quickly wiped the sweat from around my eyes.

At a glance, we seemed to be doing well, but every moment was a crisis, every moment a drain on our resources.

'The repair bill's going to be huge again.'

The expensive lightinium shield and breastplate I'd bought were already dented all over. That was only natural after taking countless punches from this troll bastard. They were made of tier-two material, not even tier three.

Expecting them to remain unscathed against a rank-five monster was asking far too much.

Not that repair costs mattered right now.

「Hikurod Murad has cast [Emergency Restoration].」

The dwarf, who'd repaired his equipment with his skill after every hit, was nearly out of MP.

Misha was in the same boat. Keeping [Cold Concentrate] active at all times to suppress even a little more of its regeneration was rapidly draining her MP.

Dwalki, though, was in the worst shape.

"Hah, hah..."

Because trolls had high Mana Resistance, he'd been chanting curses nonstop to keep them active. By now, he looked little better than a corpse.

With that in mind, it was time for a final check.

"How much mana do you have left?"

"Two minutes... No, I can keep going for about three."

"What if you leave out Dulling?"

"... I could manage seven minutes."

"I see. Stop using Dulling from now on."

Without the slowing curse, the troll would move even more ferociously, but we'd just have to deal with that. Whatever else happened, we couldn't lose Worsening, or the arm we'd worked so hard to half-sever would heal in seconds.

'Seven minutes... first, then.'

We had a time limit now.

Seven minutes.

If we didn't kill the troll by then, we were done for. It was time to make our decisive move.

"Misha, how much longer?"

"Ugh, you can ask all you want! It won't cut through, nyah!!"

I admitted there was a flaw in my plan. Misha couldn't sever the troll's arm with her swords.

Between [Worsening], Frostbite, and the acidic blood coating Venomous Viper's Fang, we'd somehow suppressed its regeneration and cut through its muscles. But the bone, as hard as a tier-three material, was the problem.

Actually, troll bone was a tier-three material, so that wasn't even a comparison, was it?

Anyway, it wasn't a major issue. When had anything ever gone exactly to plan?

'Time for Plan B.'

I scrapped Plan A and brought out a new plan. One I'd only just cobbled together, but still.

"Hikurod! You handle it alone from here!"

"Understood! But what are you planning?"

Instead of answering, I raised my mace.

Everything had its proper use. A sword wasn't a good weapon for breaking bones in the first place.

A trusty blunt weapon, on the other hand...

CRACK!

A satisfying vibration traveled through the mace as I brought it down.

True damage, with no skin or muscle to absorb the impact!

「Troll has cast [Frenzy].」

「Pain temporarily disappears, and Physical stats increase drastically.」

The troll bastard, which had been shrieking in pain, even used a skill and began rampaging in earnest.

"H-how much longer?!"

The dwarf, who'd somehow managed to hold it back, shouted more urgently than ever.

I didn't answer. How the hell was I supposed to know?

A barbarian just kept going until it worked.

"VEHELLLAAAAAA!!"

Taking that barbarian grit to heart, I brought my mace down without pause.

CRACK!

The troll tried to shove me away with its good arm, but the dwarf stubbornly blocked it.

So—

CLATTER!

I dropped the shield in my other hand. After all, I could hit harder with both hands, couldn't I?

CRACK! CRACK!

Gripping the mace in both hands, I struck, and felt a slightly stronger impact. It was the same feeling I'd had back during the Vampire fight.

That feeling that just a little more would do it.

"VEHELLLAAAAAA!!"

I even used [Wild Outburst] to raise my Physical stats a little further.

With the taunt now active too, the dwarf could no longer hold the troll bastard back, but...

THWACK!

I was pretty confident in my own toughness too.

I took the troll's attacks directly on my body and concentrated on swinging my mace.

Once. Twice. Three times.

CRUNCH!

On the third blow, the bone cracked a little.

And then...

Four. Five. Six.

CRUNCH!

On the sixth blow, the bone splintered and the arm bent at an unnatural angle.

[GRAAAGH!!]

You'd think it would back off by now, but perhaps it had some pride of its own. The troll bastard just kept attacking.

THWACK!

Even as it beat the shit out of me, I happily kept swinging my mace.

Then, on precisely the tenth blow...

CRUNCH!

The bone finally shattered completely. The arm began dangling, held on by only a few tendons.

"Misha!"

Misha had already darted in before I called out. She swung her sword and severed the tendons.

THUD!

The heavily muscled arm fell to the floor with a weighty crash. Our first achievement, earned through twenty whole minutes of every kind of bullshit imaginable.

Still...

'Now it begins.'

I was a barbarian who couldn't be satisfied with this much. Without even pausing for breath, I waited for the next stage.

From here on, it really was a race against time.

The troll's active skill, [Hyper Regeneration]. It only used that when it lost a major body part, or when a brain injury threatened its life.

'Fuck. A troll through and through.'

As the skill activated, bone began growing from the severed stump, followed by flesh and muscle.

And that was with a wound-worsening curse stacked with Frostbite, even if it wasn't Frozen.

Its healing ability was utterly absurd, but...

'It'll take two minutes to grow back completely.'

For at least two minutes, it wouldn't be able to use [Hyper Regeneration] again. The skill didn't simply boost regeneration across the board; it targeted a specific body part.

In other words, even if its brain burst or its heart was crushed, it couldn't repair them until that arm finished healing.

Which meant—

CLATTER!

I stripped off my armor and helmet and tossed them aside.

The dwarf stared at me as though I'd gone mad.

"W-why are you suddenly taking off your armor?"

Why else?

He really was slow on the uptake.

「The character has cast [Gigantification].」

My body swelled in an instant. There was still a size difference between me and the nearly four-meter-tall troll, but this should at least put me in its league.

CLATTER!

I carelessly flung aside even my mace and shield, grabbed the troll's neck, and hung on. Then I wrapped both legs around its remaining arm, pinning it.

[GRRRGH!]

Had it never imagined an explorer would dare challenge it to a wrestling match?

The troll bastard panicked and began flailing its arm about. Of course, that changed nothing.

No matter how much greater its Strength was than mine...

'This bastard must have something wrong with its head too.'

What was a one-armed bastard going to do?

"Misha, stab its fucking eyes first!"

I'd more or less set the table.

Now it was time to settle this.